Her smile was stoical. ‘All you have hurt is my pride.’
He opened his mouth to speak further but she raised a hand to stop him.
‘It would never have worked between us. I’ve known it for a while now, but I didn’t want to add to the burden you’ve carried with your grandfather’s illness.’ She sighed. ‘I will get my people to issue a press release in a couple of days, saying I have called the engagement off due to an incompatibility between us.’
It was the least he could let her do. ‘Catalina, I am sorry. I never wanted...’
‘No. Do not say anything else.’ She lifted her chin. ‘Let me leave here with some dignity.’
For a moment Helios did nothing but stare at the woman he had intended to spend the rest of his life with. Then, taking her shoulders, he pulled her into his embrace. It warmed his heart to feel her arms wrap around his waist.
‘You will find a better man than me,’ he whispered.
‘I doubt that,’ she answered drily. ‘But perhaps I will find a man whose heart is free to love me.’
‘I hope that for you too.’
Pulling apart, they kissed each other on both cheeks and smiled.
The weight he carried on his shoulders lifted a fraction.
‘I expect an invitation,’ she said as she walked away.
‘An invitation to what?’
‘To your wedding to your English curator. Your mother’s ring will look wonderful on her finger.’
With one final wink she sashayed into the palace, not looking back.
Alone in the gardens Helios did a slow turn, taking in the verdant lawns, the sweet-scented flowers in bloom, the distant maze. It was a paradise of nature and life. Whether he became custodian of it all, as he’d spent his entire life believing he would, or not, the flowers would continue to bloom. That he knew with absolute certainty.
His heart beating loudly, echoing through every chamber of his body, he took his phone out of his pocket and dialled the number he had spent the past three weeks fighting not to call.
It went straight to voicemail.
He tried again.
The same thing happened.
Back in the palace, he entered the stateroom and found the person he was looking for.
‘I need to borrow you,’ he said to Pedro, interrupting his Head of Museum’s conversation with a person he did not recognise.
‘Where are we going?’ Pedro asked.
‘To the museum. I need to get something.’
The museum was closed out of respect for his grandfather and to allow all the staff to pay their respects too.
With long strides they followed the corridors into the museum’s private entrance and cut through the large exhibition rooms until they reached the rooms that mattered to Helios at that moment. The Kalliakis Family exhibition rooms.
After he’d explained to Pedro what he wanted, a thought struck him.
‘Do you know where Amy’s working now?’
‘She’s back at the British Museum.’
No wonder she’d turned her phone off. She would be working. ‘Do you have the number?’
Pedro scrolled through his phone until he found the relevant number and thrust the phone at him.
Helios put it to his ear whilst indicating that Pedro could start on the task he’d set for him. It rang a couple of times, a passage of time that to Helios’s ears was longer than for ever, before it was answered.
‘Put me through to Amy Green,’ he said.
‘One moment, please.’
There followed a merry little game in which he was routed to varying offices until a voice said, ‘Ancient Greece Department.’
‘I wish to speak to Amy Green.’
‘I’m sorry, sir, but Amy is on leave. She’ll be back on Monday.’
‘Do you know where she’s gone?’
‘As far as I’m aware she’s attending a funeral.’
‘Thank you.’
Disconnecting the call, his brain reeling, Helios rubbed the nape of his neck.
Now what?
And as he wondered what the hell his next step should be his heart went out to her. To think she too had lost someone important... She would be in need of comfort just as he—
And in the space of a heartbeat he knew whose funeral she’d attended.
Hope filled him, spreading from his toes right to the roots of his hair.
He put a call through to his private secretary. ‘Talia,’ he said as soon as she answered, ‘I need you to find Amy Green for me. She’s in the country. Go through to Immigration and take it from there.’
To her credit, Talia took his instructions in her stride. ‘The Immigration Minister is here.’
‘Good. Speak to him. Now.’
While all this was going on Pedro had completed the task he’d been set and so the pair of them reset the alarms, closed the museum and went back to the wake.
Helios found Talia in a quiet corridor, with her phone pressed to her ear by her shoulder, writing information on her hand. She gave him a thumbs-up and carried on her conversation.
‘She’s at the airport,’ she said without preamble a few minutes later. ‘Her flight back to England leaves in forty-five minutes. The passengers for her flight will be boarding any minute.’
‘I need to get to the airport.’
A tremor of fear flashed over Talia’s face. ‘All the roads are blocked. You’ll never make it in time.’
‘Watch me.’
With that, he headed back into the stateroom and, ignoring everyone who tried to speak to him, found the butler of Theseus’s private villa, Philippe, a man who looked as if he should be catching the surf, not running a Prince’s household.
He pulled him aside to speak to him privately.
‘You have a motorbike, don’t you?’
‘Yes, Your Highness.’
‘Is it here at the palace?’
‘It’s in the staff courtyard.’
‘I need to borrow it.’
‘Now?’
‘Now.’
‘Do you know how to ride?’
‘You have the time it takes us to walk there to teach me. Let’s go.’
* * *
Amy stared out of the oval window with a heavy heart.
She was glad she’d come.
It had been a snap decision, driven by a sense of certainty that she had to go, to pay her respects to the man for whom she’d devoted almost six months of her life to creating an exhibition of his life.
Watching Helios and his brothers walking with military precision in front of the coffin, their gazes aimed forward, knowing how they must be bleeding inside...
The crowds had been so thick there had been no chance of Helios catching sight of her, but even so she hadn’t taken any chances, keeping a good distance from the barrier.
What good would it have done for him to see her? The Princess had been there for him, just as Amy had known she would be, travelling in an official car with Theseus’s and Talos’s fiancées.
A steward made his sweep down the aisle, checking everyone’s seat belts were fastened. The plane began to move. Over the speakers came the sombre voice of the captain, welcoming them all to this flight to London.
The ache in her chest told her she’d been wise to get a return flight home straight after the funeral. Any longer and the temptation to call Helios and seek him out would have become too great to resist. One night on Agon was as much as she’d been prepared to risk.
She’d taken her mother’s advice to heart, and God knew she was trying to get herself an orange.
She’d taken up her old job at the museum and enrolled in a postgraduate course on the Ancient Romans, which she would start in September. She figured she might as well expand her knowledge so that her life wasn’t all about Agon and its people, whether from history or the present. There was a big world out there to explore and learn about.
She’d kept herself busy, working by day and socialising by evening.
It was the nights that were unbearable. Despite the mild heatwave sweeping through the UK, her nights were always cold.
Somehow she would find a way to forget him.
The plane had reached the place where it would turn around and face the runway.
The woman sitting beside her gripped the armrests, her knuckles turning white in anticipation of take-off.
But no sooner had the plane started its journey down the runway than it was brought to a stop.
It took a while before the passengers realised something was wrong, and then low murmurs began spreading throughout the plane.
The voice of a stewardesses came over the speaker. ‘Could passenger Miss Amy Green please make herself known to a member of the cabin crew?’
Amy barely heard, her attention caught by a motorcyclist, speeding over the tarmac, heading towards them. Behind him was a buggy, with two men in orange high-visibility jackets towing metal steps. There was something about the figure riding the motorbike...
‘Amy Green? Miss Amy Green—please make yourself known to a member of the cabin crew.’
With a jolt she realised it was her they were asking for. Tearing her gaze away from the window, she raised a hesitant hand.
A stewardess bustled over to her, looking harassed. ‘Amy Green?’
Amy nodded, bemused and not a little scared.
‘I need you to come with me.’
‘Why?’
‘We’ve been asked to escort you off this flight.’
‘But why? Have I done something wrong?’
The stewardess shook her head. ‘I don’t know why.’
The couple she was sitting next to had to get out of their seats to let her pass, but it wasn’t long before she was trailing the stewardess to the exit, her face burning with mortification, her brain burning with confusion.
What the hell was going on...?
At the rear exit of the plane the crew were all staring at her unabashedly, no doubt wondering if she was some kind of fugitive.
Was she a fugitive? Had she unwittingly committed a crime that necessitated her being escorted off a plane and arrested?
And then the door opened, the metal stairs were hastily bolted on and she stood at the threshold, looking to see if a dozen police officers were waiting at the bottom to take her into custody.
The only person waiting for her was the motorcyclist she’d spotted. He sat astride the bike, his helmet resting under an arm...
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AMY’S HEART LEAPT so hard it almost jumped out of her mouth.
Behind her came a collective sigh from the crew. One of them squeezed her shoulder. ‘Go to him.’
But she couldn’t. Her legs had turned to jelly.
She covered her mouth, unable to believe her eyes.
What was he doing here?
His handsome face immobile, he got off his bike, placed the helmet on the seat and climbed the stairs with heavy treads.
It was only when he was at eye level with her and she was able to gaze into the liquid dark brown eyes she loved so much that Amy dared to breathe.
‘Helios,’ she whispered, raising a hand to brush it against his cheek, to feel for herself that he truly was there and that this wasn’t some dream she’d fallen into.
But no. No dream.
His cheek was warm and smooth, his jawline rough, at the stage where stubble was just starting to poke through the skin. His warm, familiar scent played under her nose.
‘Sneaking away again?’ he asked, in a voice that was meant to be humorous but that cracked on the last syllable.
‘What...? What are you doing here?’
His eyes bored into her, emotion seeping out of them. ‘I’m taking you home.’ Then he took the final step up and lifted her into his arms. ‘I’m taking you home,’ he repeated.
Another collective ‘Ooh...’ sounded from behind her, and as Helios carried her down the steps a round of applause broke out. One of the men in high-visibility jackets, who was waiting by the buggy, wolf-whistled.
Amy heard it all, but none of it penetrated. All her senses were focused so intensely on her lover that everything else had become a blur.
At the bottom of the steps Helios placed her carefully on her feet.
Suddenly the biggest, widest grin spread over his face. ‘Would Despinis Green like a ride on my bike?’
Laughter bubbled up in her throat and broke through her daze. She flung her arms around him. ‘Yes. Please. Take me anywhere.’
* * *
Amy kept a tight hold on Helios as he drove them through the streets of Resina. She didn’t have to hold him tightly—the dense throng of partying people meant he had to ride at a snail’s pace—but she needed to. Keeping her cheek pressed into the solidity of his back and her arms around his waist grounded her, helped her accept the reality of what had just happened.
Soon they had passed through the capital and were out in the verdant countryside, with Agon’s mountains looming before them. Helios found a road that took them up Mount Ares, the rockiest of Agon’s mountains, past goats casually chewing grass by sheer drops, taking them higher and higher until they arrived at a clearing.
He turned the engine off and clicked the stand down to keep the bike upright before helping her off.
She looked at him, laughing as she properly noticed for the first time that he’d ridden with her up a mountain in a pair of handmade black trousers, black brogues, now covered in dust, and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up that had probably been as crisp as freshly baked pie earlier but was now crumpled and stained.
‘Your clothes are ruined.’
He shrugged, his eyes sparkling. ‘I couldn’t care less.’
Taking her hand, he led her to a flat grassy area and sat down, enfolding her in his arms so her back rested against his chest and her head was tucked beneath his chin.
‘When I was a child my brothers and I would race to the top of this mountain. When we’d all reached the summit we would come down to this clearing and eat our picnic. This spot has the best view of the sunset on the whole of Agon.’
The sun was already making its descent, causing a darkly colourful hue to settle over the island.
‘How did you know I was here?’ she asked eventually.
‘Your museum told me you’d gone to a funeral. I guessed.’
‘But how did you know what plane I was on?’
‘Do you really need me to answer that?’ he said with bemusement.
She smiled to herself, tightening her hold on his hands, which were still wrapped around her waist. And then she remembered why she had come to Agon today.
‘I’m so sorry about your grandfather,’ she said softly.
He kissed her head. ‘He was ready to go.’
‘I wanted to call you.’
‘I know you did. And you were right not to.’
She sighed. Now that she had come to her senses, reality was poking at her painfully.
‘How did you manage to sneak out without your bodyguards?’
‘Simple. I didn’t tell them what I was doing. The palace was so busy with the wake it was easy. Talia will have told them by now.’
‘She knows you came for me?’
‘Yes. So does Pedro.’
‘How long do we have? Here, I mean?’
‘As long as we want.’
‘But you’ll be missed,’ she said with another sigh, thinking that, however wonderful it was to be sat in his arms again, she would be dragged away from him again soon.
She was here now, though. A short interlude. Two lovers snatching a few minutes together to watch the sunset. One final sweet goodbye.
‘I have done my duty by my grandfather today. And, matakia mou, he would want me to be here with you.’
‘He would?’
‘My grandfather was a great believer in two things—duty and love.’
Her heart gave a little skip at his words, a skip she tried frantically to dampen.
�
��Please, Helios, don’t say things like that. It isn’t fair.’
He caught her chin and turned her face to look at him. ‘How can the truth not be fair? You are my whole world. I love you.’
‘Please, stop,’ she beseeched, clutching at his shirt. ‘Don’t speak of love to me when you will be marrying Catalina—’
‘I’m not marrying Catalina,’ Helios interrupted, castigating himself for being foolish enough to believe Amy was a mind reader who would have known the truth from the minute she’d seen him from her plane window. ‘The wedding is off.’
Her eyes widened into huge round orbs. ‘It is? Since when?’
‘Since about three hours ago, when I realised I couldn’t live another day without you. Catalina and I had a talk.’ Knowing Amy would be concerned for the Princess, he took pains to reassure her. ‘She will be fine. She’s as good a woman as you always told me, and I promise you we have her blessing.’
‘But...’ Nothing else came. Her mouth was opening and closing as if her tongue had forgotten how to form words.
He pressed his lips to hers, inhaling the warm, sweet breath he had believed he would never taste again.
‘I love you,’ he repeated, looking at her shocked face. ‘It’s you I want to marry. Just you. Only you.’
‘I want that too. More than anything in the world.’
‘Then why do you look so sad?’
‘Because I know it can never be. You aren’t allowed to marry a commoner.’
He took hold of her hand and pressed it to his chest. ‘Listen to my heart,’ he said quietly. ‘I knew I had to find a wife when my grandfather was given his diagnosis, but I put it off and put it off because deep down I knew it would mean losing you. My heart has been beating for you from the very start.’
Her breath gave a tiny hitch.
‘You asked me what I would have been if I hadn’t been born heir to the throne and I had no good answer for you, because it wasn’t something I had ever allowed myself to think about. The throne, my country...they were my life. I didn’t expect love. My only hope for marriage was that it would be better than what my parents had. However it panned out I would do my duty and I would respect my wife. That was the most I hoped for. I didn’t want love. I saw the way my father abused the power of my mother’s love and I never wanted to have the power to inflict such hurt on a woman. That’s why Catalina seemed so perfect—I thought she was emotionally cold.’
Helios Crowns His Mistress Page 15
